Crop diseases caused by fungi threaten food security and exacerbate the food crisis. Inspired by the application of fungicide candidates from natural products in agrochemical discovery, a series of luotonin A derivatives were designed, synthesized, and evaluated for their antifungal activities against five plant fungi. Most of these compounds exhibited significant fungicidal activity against Botrytis cinerea in vitro with EC50 values less than 1 μg/mL. Among them, compounds w7, w8, w12, and w15 showed superior antifungal activity against B. cinerea with EC50 values of 0.036, 0.050, 0.042, and 0.048 μg/mL, respectively, which were more potent than boscalid (EC50 = 1.790 μg/mL). Preliminary mechanism studies revealed that compound w7 might pursue its antifungal activity by disrupting the fungal cell membrane and cell wall. Moreover, in vivo bioassay also indicated that compound w7 could be effective for the control of B. cinerea. The above results evidenced the potential of luotonin A derivatives as novel and promising candidate fungicides.
Keywords: Botrytis cinerea; antifungal activity; luotonin A; mechanism of action; phytopathogenic fungi.